


Knowing Smiles

by CeaselessCow2011



Series: A Place To Call Home [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Archives Crew Are All Friends, Found Family, Gen, He/Him and They/Them Pronouns for Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Love, elias bouchard is a Bastard, knowing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29209344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeaselessCow2011/pseuds/CeaselessCow2011
Summary: Elias tries to make everyone hate Jon, but that plan backfires for him.
Series: A Place To Call Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2144592
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Knowing Smiles

They give you the most pitiful looks when they learn something they shouldn’t have. They look at you with such horrible sympathy. It makes you feel sick. Why must they give you this much attention? Shouldn’t they know by now that you absolutely hate it when you’re in the spotlight like this?

As Jon walked into his office for another busy day as usual, he gained the attention of Sasha and Martin. Sasha gave him a look of apologeticness, meanwhile Martin gave him a pity smile. Jon hated pity smiles. He knew something had gone awry. Even Tim seemed off. Tim was quietly scribbling down things on a yellow legal pad, not even giving Jon so much as a second glance.

The scene Jon walked in on when he walked into his office was unbearable. It made his face grow hot, it made him think something was terribly wrong or terribly right (even more than he already felt) and he didn’t know which emotion to feel; terrified or joyous. 

There was a warm cup of tea made just to Jon’s liking, which made Jon know immediately that this was all Martin’s doing. He knew how Jon liked his tea. He knew how Jon liked his, well, nearly everything. Next to the tea was an envelope that said in big, fancy cursive writing: To Jonathan Sims. Also next to the tea sat a home-made meal in a glass container. 

Jon sat down at his chair. He sipped at his lovely, wonderful, warm, radiant cup of tea and savoured the feeling of warmth travelling down his throat. He would never admit it to Martin, but the cups of tea were always the highlight of Jon’s day. He drank about half of the tea before setting down the mug. 

He took a deep breath and exhaled, looking at the envelope. He had to admit, he was pretty nervous about this. He grabbed the envelope and examined it. It looked like Martin had at least written the front, he could tell in the way the ‘i’ in Sims was written. No one else wrote their ‘i’ like that. He cautiously opened the envelope. In the envelope was a folded piece of paper. He carefully took the piece of paper and took it out of the envelope. With another deep breath, Jon opened the letter. It read:

‘Jon, 

We (Tim, Sasha, and Martin) are all very sorry to be showing you this letter. Elias did something very bad and we want to talk to you about it later after work. It’s very important that we talk to you about this as soon as possible, because we know if we don’t talk about this, Elias will bring this up and we don’t want it to be a surprise for you. We all prepared a meal for you and Martin made you some tea. We’re all recording statements and doing follow-ups, so please just enjoy some you time and don’t worry about working today. If you want us to have a talk about this, write it down at the button of the paper and give it to one of us with all the details. Prepare yourself for talking about some really important and deep things, please. It’s going to be all about you, and we know you don’t like that, but that’s what’s happening right now. We all care about you very much. Have a good one :)

~ Tim, Sasha, Martin XOXO’

A rumble of panic filled his lower stomach and travelled up his body. What does this all mean? What did Elias tell them? Why did they need to talk about him? He reached for one of his many pens and wrote:

‘Hello. I will do what you all said and will give myself some time off of my work to prepare for this talk. Could we possibly go to one of our flats to do this? Mine, perhaps? If any of you need me for anything, I will be in my office. Thank you for informing me about the horrible plots of Elias Douchtard.   
~Jonathan Sims’

After he was finished writing, he put the letter back into the envelope and went out of his office. He went to where Martin, Sasha and Tim were and cleared his throat to get their attention. The three looked back at Jon, who was holding up the envelope. 

“Who wants it?” Jon asked plainly.

Tim, Sasha and Martin looked at each other in silence before Martin went to him. “I can! If, if you’re alright with that.”

Jon handed it to him. “Please read it here and now.”

Martin nodded, opened the envelope, and silently read Jon’s response. He whispered something to Sasha and Tim, and the three thought a moment before Tim and Sasha pointed at Jon. 

“Okay, I’ll tell him.” Martin went to Jon and whispered, “We think it’d be best to do this at your flat. I’ll come knock on your door at the end of the day. Make sure you relax.” He smiled softly.

“I- Yes, okay, I will. As much as I can, considering.” Jon nodded. “I’ll see you three then.” He went back to his office. He sat in his chair and rubbed his temples. “God, what am I getting myself into…”

He felt off. He felt wrong. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t going to be okay. If only he knew what Elias had said to them. Elias knew too much to not be suspicious. 

He knew that if he kept thinking about it he would be too anxious to talk later, so he put a pin in that thought spiral and opened the container full of rice, lo mein noodles, and vegetables with sauce and chicken. He smiled. He truly was grateful for Martin making him food and drink- he knew just how to make Jon brim with happiness, even if Jon never really showed it.

After a while of sitting, eating, and trying to focus on relaxing, a knock on the door came, which startled the sleeping archivist awake.

“C-Come in!” Jon said, groggy. He quickly acted professional just in case it was someone other than Martin, Tim or Sasha. Much to Jon’s relief, it was Martin. He relaxed and yawned a little. “Oh, hello, Martin.”

“Hi! Um, are you ready to go?”

“Oh, yes I am.” Jon grabbed the container and mug and gave them to Martin. “Thank you for this, by the way.”

“Of course!” Martin took them. “I’ll be back, I’m going to clean and put these away. I’ll meet you guys outside.” He left.

Jon got ready to go home. The nervousness set in again. He took deep breaths. This was going to be okay, he reassured himself. He just needed to breathe. He walked to where Tim and Sasha were, outside of the building. 

“Hi, Jon! Where’s Martin?” Sasha asked, curious.

“He’s coming. He’s just putting some things away.” Jon said, trying to keep as much of his composure as he could. 

“Alright.” Sasha went back to her phone. 

The three of them waited in silence until Martin came back.

“Hi! Are you guys ready?” Martin asked.

Sasha and Tim nodded, and Jon started leading them to his flat, not making a sound. The three followed suit- not one of them said a word. Tim, Sasha, and Martin gave each other the occasional knowing look as they knew this wasn’t going to be an easy or good conversation. Jon was extremely anxious and nervous and terrified, but dared not show it. 

Once getting to the flat, Jon unlocked the door and let the rest of the group in. The flat was clean, aside from the ever-growing piles of paper that were stacked in a messy pile in the corner of the living space.

“Would any of you like anything? Tea, perhaps?” Jon offered.

“Tea would be nice,” Martin started. “If that’s alright.”

Sasha also chimed in. “Tea for me as well, please.”

Tim shrugged and said “Just some water is fine, thanks.”

Jon nodded and gave Sasha and Martin multiple options, trying to push aside any guilt he had about not knowing his coworkers favourite kinds of tea. 

Martin picked an earl grey tea, and Sasha picked cherry blossom tea. Jon turned the kettle on. He then grabbed two glasses and filled each with cold water and gave one to Tim. He set the other down on the counter next to him.

After the water was done heating up, he poured the water into the mugs and gave them to Martin and Sasha respectively. After everyone’s drink was done being made, they all went to the couch.

“So, Jon…” Tim said. Jon looked to him. “Elias said some pretty uh, deep things about you after you left early yesterday. Sash, Marto and I all have been thinking of ways to talk to you about it. We don’t want you to feel cornered, and we also didn’t wanna leave you in the dark about it all.”

“Thank you for that.” 

“Of course,” Tim went on. “Anyway, I even wrote notes, it may just be the most work I’ve done in the past year.” He chuckled, and the rest chuckled in agreement. He continued on. “So, starting out… Something we all know is that Elias, um, knows everything, right?” Jon nodded. “That being said, he brought up a lot of things about you that no one would really know about you, things we think you would never say to someone, especially someone as dickish as him. So yeah. Anyway. The first thing on the list is, well, Elias told us all about your relationship with your family. How your parents died, how you were orphaned and taken in by your grandmother, everything about that and your childhood.”

Jon suddenly felt even more hot than he’d already felt. “Um… E-Everything?”

Martin solemnly nodded. “Yes, everything… It was, it was a lot.”

Moments passed. Time suddenly seemed to rush around Jon like a stream of nonsense. This couldn’t be happening. Elias couldn’t have told them everything. He just couldn’t have. Tears formed in Jon’s eyes as he stared through the couch. He just needed to process what was going on.

“Hey hey hey.” Tim said, putting his hand on Jon’s shoulder. Jon looked up and met Tim’s eyes. “Are you okay, Jon?”

“Um… I’m… Not sure, to be honest. I’m just kind of in disbelief, I suppose.”

“That’s completely okay. You’re allowed to feel like that, I get it.” Tim nodded. “He talked about you in a really negative light, it felt horrible to hear. He said you were extremely intolerable and annoying.”

Jon sighed. “Well, he isn’t wrong-”

“Yes, he is!” Sasha interrupted. “He is very wrong! Jon, what Elias said isn’t true at all, not one word. He also told us about the failed therapy thing-”

“The failed therapy thing?! Oh goodness… So you all know all of the diagnoses I have ever acquired, then…?”

They all nodded. Martin started speaking. “Yes, but look at it this way, Jon. Elias told us many, many things about you to try and get us to hate and despise you and to turn against you, but we’re still here for you. We still care about you. All of us do, and we won’t stop just because some absolute dickhead tells us rotten things about you.” Martin had to take a few deep breaths after speaking to cool himself and prevent himself from going off about Elias.

“Right… Well, what else did he say?” Jon asked after sipping some water. He definitely needed the hydration; his mouth and throat had been running dry for a while. 

“He told us about um… About, well… He outed you.” Sasha said hesitantly. She was nervous about how Jon might react to that.

“Outed me? Outed me as what?”

“He talked about how you’re aromantic, and talked about how you’re ace and about uh… How you’re nonbinary.” Tim said cautiously.

Jon looked around a little bit. “So… How do you all feel about that?”

“This isn’t about us and how we feel about it, but we don’t judge you at all for any of it.” Martin said. “You’re valid in your identity. What pronouns do you go by?”

“I use he and him mostly, but sometimes I use they and them.” Jon smiled a little bit. He felt relieved and felt very accepted and supported by the three. “Thank you guys. For telling me, and accepting and caring about me, even after knowing everything.” He was truly grateful for them. 

“Of course, Jon. We’re always here for you.” Martin said softly, putting his hand on Jon’s leg.

Tim put his hand on Jon’s shoulder. “That’s what best friends are for, y’know?”

“Yeah, we’re all just four best friends doing best friend things; hanging out, talking about stuff, hating our evil boss.” Sasha added with a grin.

Jon chuckled at the addition. “Ah, yes, just the normal things best friends do.”

“See, you get it.” Sasha chuckled out. 

The four of them had a chuckle about that.

“Now, who’s up for some pizza and watchin’ movies?” Tim asked.

Jon sighed while smiling. “You let them in one time…”

Tim punched Jon’s shoulder playfully. “Yup! That’s whatcha’ get for lettin’ in Tim Stoker!”

Jon laughed. “Fine, fine, you’ve got a point; so, what kind of pizza are we having?”


End file.
